Second year coach Sandy Wood has guided the women’s tennis team to a quick turnaround.
Fresh blood and new faces can have a profound impact on an athletic program.
Such is the case for the URI women’s tennis team, where second-year coach Sandy Wood has guided a quick turnaround. For Wood, a 50-year-old retired financial advisor, this is the first leap into collegiate coaching after serving as girls’ coach for tennis and squash at St. George’s School, a prep program in Middletown, R.I.
After struggling to a 4-16 record and an 11th-place in the Atlantic 10 tournament last year, this season has been very different for the team. Bolstered by a strong recruiting class that has four freshmen in the top six of Rhody’s lineup, the Rams posted a perfect 6-0 record in the fall, including a victory over state rival Providence College.
“When I joined URI in August 2004, we had a team that was a bit on the weak side,” said Wood, a 1977 graduate of Dartmouth, where he earned four varsity letters with the men’s team and won the 1974 ECACC Division crown. “The team worked hard and improved during the year, but we were a little overmatched against a tough Division I schedule. We recruited quite hard and got four freshmen who are now in our top six. It has been a big change, and they are playing with veterans who have improved with another year under their belt.”
Learning to recruit has been exciting for Wood. With his first class, he landed Valerie Chacon, Grace Hedstrom, Jess Sims, Haley Loewenthal, and Carolyn Reuschel, all of whom have contributed immediately. Combining the freshmen with veterans Erin Fleming, Emily Conant, Revathi Annapareddy and Whitney Squires gives URI a potent lineup.
“One thing that has helped is that I am not a burnt out coach who has been in the coaching game for 20 years,” said Wood, who filled the vacancy left when Val Villucci took over the URI men’s program. “When I am recruiting, I think the kids pick up on my energy and love of the game. I’m not tired of coaching, and I’m committed to building a strong program. More than once that has helped when we have been head-to-head recruiting against another school.”
The recruiting success continued over the winter as Wood announced in late November the signings of three strong recruits for next year.
Nyssa Peele, a senior at St. Stephens Tennis Academy, is ranked No. 23 in Texas and is among the top 350 nationally. New Jersey native Amanda Barletta is ranked No. 38 in the Eastern Section of the USTA Girls 18s and plays No. 1 singles for Kent Place High School. New York’s Stefani Catanzano has held a top 30 Eastern rankings in both the Girls 16s and 18s. She also ranks among the top 400 nationally.
“I expect all three players to contribute to the resurgence in URI women’s tennis,” Wood said. “We are very fortunate to be adding fine players and great citizens to our team. We are looking forward to their arrival next fall.”
Still an active player on the regional senior circuit, Wood was ranked both in New England and nationally as a youth player. At the time of his hiring, he was ranked No. 1 in New England in men’s 45 doubles. He says that tournament experience has helped him relate to the players.
“When one of the players is in a match, you think about one or two things to suggest during the changeover,” Wood said. “It could be a small confidence builder, or a tactical change. But you keep it simple. You don’t want to say too much and get them thinking too much. It is important to let them play.”
The major thing Wood has learned in the early stages of his collegiate coaching career is that the women have a firm understanding of the basics of the sport. Unlike his days at St. George’s, where he often started from scratch and taught players how to play, he now works on tuning the finer points of the game for his squad.
“It’s fun because you don’t spend time teaching the basics of the game,” Wood said. “We work more on improving specific shots in practice, so when circumstances come up in matches, they know how to just do it and have the confidence to make the shot.”
One area that does involve a fair amount of teaching and getting back to the basics is the doubles game. In college matches, there is one team point for doubles. There are three eight-game sets played, and whichever school wins two of the sets wins the doubles point. From there, teams play six singles matches. The first team to win four points wins the overall match.
“It’s important for the women to prepare for a lot of different aspects of the game,“ Wood said. “Most of the women were the top singles players from their high schools, so they don’t really come here knowing how to play doubles. They also may not have focused on the tools needed in doubles such as overheads, moving forward, and volleys. We spend a lot of time working on that.“
The strategy has worked wonders thus far, as URI won the doubles point in all six of its fall matches. In the process, the Rams won 16 of the 18 sets played in doubles.
In a short time, URI has gone from conference doormat to rising power. The team started back up in February, playing three days a week to prepare for the spring season.
“I hope they all missed tennis over the break and have come back hungry,” Wood said. “The good thing about the early success is that the freshmen behave as if winning is normal for URI. I knew we’d be stronger this year because we had solid talent, but you never know how it will work out until you get on the court. We’ve been pleasantly surprised, and it bodes well for the future. We can now be successful, and we have to build on that.”
By Shane Donaldson ’99Photo by Nora Lewis
